Who's Next? The Top 5 Successors To The Big 3 In Men's Tennis

5. Nick Kyrgios (#26 in the world)

The talented, mercurial, and often hot-tempered 24-year old Aussie reminds many of the Nuke LaLoosh character from 1988’s ​Bull Durham. ​The mercurial young pitcher is described as having “a million dollar arm, and a five-cent head”. That’s Kyrgios in a nutshell.

He has all the talent in the world, arguably the most in the men’s game, but he cancels that out be going insane, for lack of a better word, on the game’s biggest stages. He could either get to the final here, or flame out in the 2nd round. He’s been a leader in raising awareness and money to help with the Australian wildfires, even dedicating $200 for every ace he gets as well as helping with organizing the exhibition tourney Rally For Relief that raised $4million.

Maybe some maturity is starting to emerge. Like the tennis heroes of yesteryear, these rising stars will have their time to shine!

4. Alexander Zverev (#7 in the world)

The 22-year old German wunderkind arguably may be the one closest to knocking on the door of TB3’s party. He’s the only active player outside of TB3 to have won three ATP Masters 1000 titles, so he’s definitely proven himself against them. Zverev’s 2019 was mostly poor, then a late surge at year’s end yielded some good results.

However, his performance at the recent ATP Cup, where he essentially forgot how to serve, has raised questions again. A rededication on the practice court has raised his confidence, so maybe not being a favorite at Aussie Open 2020 will be a good thing, so as not to drown the young German in expectations.

3. Dominic Thiem (#5 in the world)

The 26-year old Austrian is one of the up-and-comers that legitimately has a chance to win a major this year and knock off one of TB3. He’s one of the most fit players on tour, putting himself through grueling physical workouts in anticipation of the grueling matches he’ll face on tour. He’s reached two Grand Slam finals in his career, losing to Nadal in both the 2018 and 2019 French Open finals.

In 2019, he beat Federer to win the prestigious ATP Masters 1000 title at Indian Wells. For Thiem, it’s really not a question of if, but when.

2. Stefanos Tsitsipas (#6 in the world)

The young Greek, only 21 years old, is the youngest player in the world Top 10 rankings. And he has the potential to be a beast. He is the reigning ATP Finals champion, the youngest winner of that event in eighteen years.

He also was an out-of-nowhere semifinalist at the 2019 Aussie Open, beating his boyhood idol Roger Federer along the way.

More about that. Tsitsipas’ game is modeled almost identically after Federer’s game, so much so that Federer was even quoted as saying it was “like looking into a mirror." If you’re going to be a great player and break the run of TB3, what better way to do it than model your game after arguably the greatest to ever play the sport?

Also of note, Tsipsitas will have the home-court advantage for every match he plays outside of playing an actual Australian as Melbourne, home of the Aussie Open, has the highest percentage of Greek population of any city in the world outside of Greece itself. Look for Tsipsitas, and his fans, to make a lot of noise in the first major of the year.

1. Daniil Medvedev (#4 in the world)

The 23-year old Russian is poised for a big 2020, if his 2019 was any indication. Medvedev reached ​six ​consecutive tournament finals, including the US Open and three Masters 1000 events. He lost to Nadal in an absolute classic of a 5-set US Open final, taking the Spaniard to the brink.

Sometimes a loss like that can send a player the message that he or she is ready to make that next step to become a major champion.

The tall and lanky Russian has started his 2020 campaign on a strong note, going 4-1in singles in the inaugural ATP Cup while leading Russia to the semifinals of the event. Medvedev lost to Djokovic in a very competitive three set match for his only defeat.